Toro Rosso 'craving' Honda updates, says Hartley

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A disappointing outing for Toro Rosso last weekend in Singapore has left the team seeking urgent solutions in time for the next race.

A new Honda engine is due to be rolled out in Sochi, although that will probably mean drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley will be hit by grid penalties as a result.

On the upside, it means that they should benefit from better grid positions at Honda's home Japanese Grand Prix the following week.

The team hasn't had a significant power unit upgrade since Austria, and Hartley confirms this has begun to harm their competitiveness in the midfield.

“We haven’t had an update for a long time, it seems like the other teams have improved a bit more than us,” said the Kimi.

“The last update we brought, which was Austria, didn’t bring us much performance," he admitted. "That was a long time ago, so we are definitely craving another.

Gasly seeks answer to Toro Rosso's struggles in Singapore

"There’s one from Honda and from Toro Rosso on the cards coming soon."

The failure of Honda's Spec-2 upgrade to deliver a big power breakthrough had clearly been something of a concern to the team.

"I think no one is hiding the fact the update didn’t work in Austria," Hartley conceded.

"It kind of asked a few questions for the ongoing development and they are working really hard to resolve that," he said. "We haven’t been pointing the finger at Honda regardless.

“There’s been a lot of changes over the winter months with Honda and new staff and aerodynamics," he continued. "I think we are going to be reaping the benefits later in the season.

The situation at Faenza is being carefully monitored by Red Bull boss Christian Horner. The senior team is to switch to Honda power in 2019 after 12 seasons with Renault.

According to reports in Italy, Honda engines are currently providing only 930hp, compared to 950hp for Renault and over a thousand for both Mercedes and Ferrari.

"They are pushing hard, we have confidence in what we see," Horner insisted.

"The investment that we see going into the programme, the quality of personnel that are involved, things are very much moving in the right direction.

"Only time will tell, but I think you'll inevitably see more changes this year which is all part of the development process for 2019 and beyond."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.